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'Hitchcock' Star Anthony Hopkins Calls Awards Season Schmoozing "Disgusting"

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • November 19, 2012 2:51 PM
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  • 4 Comments
News
Did Anthony Hopkins just pull a Joaquin Phoenix? The legendary actor and four-time Oscar nominee (who won Best Actor for "Silence Of The Lambs") is out on the stump for "Hitchcock," but he's making it plainly clear he's not a fan of having to charm all the various critics groups and voters as part of the awards season rush.
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More: Anthony Hopkins, Hitchcock, Awards, Oscars

Oscars: Dancing With 'Anna Karenina' As The Costume & Production Design Awards Come Into Play

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • November 15, 2012 12:58 PM
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  • 5 Comments
Awards
Friday sees the release of Joe Wright's version of "Anna Karenina," a film which, over the last few months, has become something of a Playlist favorite. A bold, non-naturalistic take on Tolstoy's classic, it's proven to be hugely divisive -- some have mocked it as near-disastrous, some (including this writer, and several other senior Playlist staff members) consider it among the finest films of the year. As such, this divisiveness has likely, and sadly, put paid to the film's chances in most of the big ticket Oscar races. Best Picture, Director and Screenplay are very long shots at this stage, and even Keira Knightley, a presumptive frontrunner for Best Actress before the film was seen, may find herself outside the final five when all is said and done.
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More: Awards, Academy Awards, Oscars, Anna Karenina

Benghazi, The Fiscal Cliff & The Election: How Important Is It For A Best Picture Contender To Capture The Zeitgeist?

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • November 14, 2012 3:58 PM
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  • 3 Comments
Awards
When President Barack Obama won re-election a week ago, more than one tweet popped up saying something along the lines of "Well, that makes 'Lincoln' the Best Picture front-runner now." You could certainly make that argument for Steven Spielberg's film. It had plenty of adoring reviews, a titanic performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, and a enormously healthy box office-average in limited release, taking around $75000 on each of its eleven screens.
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More: Awards, Oscars, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Argo, Promised Land

Warner Bros. Launches Oscar Campaigns For 'The Dark Knight Rises' & 'Cloud Atlas'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • November 13, 2012 1:26 PM
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  • 18 Comments
News
It's that time of year, and the studios are getting ready to wine and dine Oscar voters in the hopes of giving their prestige pictures, success stories and, hell, even the long shots, a bit of love in the awards season. And Warner Bros. is getting in on the act. They've launched their awards site, and alongside the obvious contenders like "Magic Mike," "Argo" and "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" are the bigger long shots: Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" and The Wachowskis' and Tom Tykwer's "Cloud Atlas."
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More: The Dark Knight Rises, Oscars, Awards

Joaquin Phoenix Backtracks On His Damaging Oscar Comments, Says He Owes Career To His Nomination

  • By Charlie Schmidlin
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  • November 13, 2012 10:17 AM
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  • 2 Comments
News
For every year-end darling labeled by audiences and critics as an Oscar contender, there likewise exists an awards season campaign fully brought to its knees by an actor's derisive remarks. No matter the veracity of their statements, it's long been established that any unfavorable opinion not left until post-February remains a strike against everyone involved in their movie, and such is the case with “The Master” heavyweight Joaquin Phoenix's gradual backtrack from his damaging comments last month surrounding his potential nomination.
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More: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master, Awards, Oscars

Will 'Skyfall' Finally Win Cinematography Legend Roger Deakins An Oscar?

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • November 9, 2012 11:01 AM
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  • 12 Comments
Awards
If there's one thing that even "Skyfall" naysayers agree on, it's that the film's cinematography looks absolutely stunning. More than anything else, Sam Mendes' master-stroke may have been bringing his "Jarhead" and "Revolutionary Road" DoP (and Coen Brothers veteran) Roger Deakins along on the adventure. And the result is an action film where every frame could hang in a gallery (the Shanghai sequence and the final set-piece in particular). It's certainly one of the best looking films of 2012.
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More: Oscars, Academy Awards, The Amazing Race, Awards, Roger Deakins

Oscars: Can 'Flight' & 'Hitchcock' Earn More Than Just Acting Nominations?

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • November 6, 2012 9:58 AM
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  • 2 Comments
Awards
Now that we're into November, things are really starting to get underway and we're about to see an onslaught of Oscar contenders. Last month had a couple of hopefuls with "Argo" and "The Sessions," but from the release of Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" this Friday, awards bait comes thick and fast, with virtually every week seeing at least one film heading into release.
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More: Academy Awards, Awards, Hitchcock, Flight, Oscars, The Amazing Race

Oscars: Could 'Wreck-It Ralph' Lead A Disney Sweep Of The Animated Feature Category?

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • November 2, 2012 12:02 PM
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  • 8 Comments
Awards
It's a big week for animated feature films. Not only does today see the release of "Wreck-It Ralph," the highly-acclaimed new feature from Walt Disney Studios, but it's also the deadline for new films to register for the Best Animated Feature Oscar race. Barring a shock, we're looking at a list of about 17 films, which means that, as with 2009 and 2011, there are enough films for the category to hold five nominees (more than 16 are required). It won't necessarily happen, but it probably will.
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More: Awards, Academy Awards, Oscars, The Amazing Race, Wreck-It Ralph

Oscars: Are Paul Thomas Anderson & David O. Russell Frontrunners For Original & Adapted Screenplay?

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • October 25, 2012 12:07 PM
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  • 19 Comments
Awards
Earlier in the week, Universal got their Academy Awards campaign moving by launching their For Your Consideration site, which included uploading a selection of screenplays for their major movies online. Some feel optimistic at best ("The Lorax," "Snow White and the Huntsman," "Ted"), some are a little more viable ("This Is 40," "Les Misérables"). But fresh off reading the Judd Apatow script (which is kind of terrific, and has the potential to be the director's best film yet), and having covered the acting categories in previous weeks, we thought we'd turn our eye to the screenplay races.
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More: Awards, Academy Awards, Oscars, The Amazing Race, David O. Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson

'Stand Up Guys' Goes For Gold With An Oscar-Qualifying Run

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • October 24, 2012 3:16 PM
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  • 2 Comments
News
You know what the Academy loves? Old people. You know who it's largely made up of? Old people. Give them an elderly person emoting and they'll hand out an Oscar nod, particularly if it's a legendary actor who is beloved and has been kicking around for a while. And when your movie stars Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin, why not see if these guys can generate a bit of awards season heat?
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More: Oscars, Stand Up Guys

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